Kabir was born in
Feni district,
Chittagong Division,
East Pakistan and now in Bangladesh on 20 November 1950. He attended
St Gregory's School. He passed his higher secondary exam from
Jagannath College. He was a student of the Department of Bengali at the
University of Dhaka. Shariar Kabir was one of the prominent activists of Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra in
Kolkata during
Liberation War. He helped to write inspiring script & poems for freedom fighter during the war which were played in Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra. Then he was a student of Bengali Department of the
University of Dhaka.[4] He started his writings for teenagers and juveniles when he was a university student. After the war, he joined as a journalist in the Daily Bangla and also in the Weekly Bichitra.[5] He was one of the main editors of
Weekly Bichitra, which played a vital role for the punishment of liberation war criminals. From 1976 to 1980 he became the general secretary of the organization Bangladesh Lekhak Shibir.[6]
Career
In January 1992, Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee (Committee for Resisting Killers and Collaborators of Bangladesh Liberation War of 71) was formed by 101 people. This committee called for the trial of people who committed crimes against humanity in the 1971
Bangladesh Liberation War in collaboration with the
Pakistan Army. The Ghatak-Dalal Nirmul Committee set up mock trials in Dhaka in March 1992 known as
Gono Adalot (Court of the people) and 'sentenced' persons they accused of being war criminals.[5]Jahanara Imam and 24 others were charged with treason.[7][8] This charge was, however, dropped in 1996 after her death by the Chief advisor
Mohammed Habibur Rahman of the
Caretaker government of that time.[9]
Kabir played a major role in formation of
Nirmul Committee.[citation needed] The people's court set up by the Ekattorer Ghatak-Dalal Nirmul Committee led by Jahanara Imam was deemed unlawful by the Government of Bangladesh.[10] After the death of Jahanara Imam, he became the acting president of Ghatak Dalal
Nirmul Committee.[citation needed]
Kabir has been active for years as a journalist writing about human rights in Bangladesh. He was arrested twice in the early 2000s for what the government considered illegal attacks.[11] He was first arrested in November 2001, after the government of
Khaleda Zia of the
Bangladesh National Party had come to power. The government charged him with
sedition and "tarnishing the image of the government" because he was investigating attacks on the
Hindu minority from October to December 2001 and accused minister of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami of taking part in war crimes during
Bangladesh Liberation War.[12][13] Many Hindus had been intimidated and attacked by party workers during that period in an effort to keep them away from the polls,[12] as they generally did not vote for the Islamist parties. Kabir was documenting accounts by the survivors.[14] He was then released on bail in January 2002.[12][15] In February 2002, a bomb was thrown at a reception for him in
Chittagong Press Club, killing one bystander.[16]
Kabir was arrested again in December 2002 . As the head of the
Nirmul Committee, which he founded in 1992 to work for prosecution of those responsible for genocide and other war crimes during the
Bangladesh War of Independence in 1971, Kabir has continued to take an active role.[12] Observers said that the BNP was threatened as its principal political partner,
Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami has leaders who have been alleged to have participated as in paramilitary forces against liberation in 1971, which the party opposed.[12] When the High Court ruled on 4 January 2003 that Kabir's detention without charges was illegal,[13] the government held him for an additional 90 days under the
Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act.[12]
He has alleged that
Ghulam Azam, a former leader of Jamaat e Islami at the time of the liberation war, had played an important role in the mass killings of the 1971 conflict, as had Jamaat as a group. He has also said that the Razakars were founded by the Jamaat e Islami leader, MaulanaA.K.M. Yusuf.[17] Kabir has supported efforts by the
Awami League-led government, which won a two-thirds majority in the Parliament in December 2008, to establish an
International Crimes Tribunal in 2009 to prosecute war crimes. The first trials were completed in early 2013, with three men convicted who have been prominent in Jamaat since the liberation war, which the party opposed. Afterwards he called for a ban on the Jamaat-e-Islami party.[18] Ghulam Azam was also convicted by the International Crimes Tribunal.[19]
Shahriyar Kabir is also a very popular author for children and young adult's adventure book genre. He has penned many books like Nuliachorir Shonar Pahar, Abuder Adventure, Carpathian er Kalo Golap etc.[20]
^Murshid, Tazeen M. (2001). "State, Nation, Identity: The Quest for Legitimacy in Bangladesh". In Shastri, Amita;
Jeyaratnam Wilson, A. (eds.). The Post-Colonial States of South Asia: Political and Constitutional Problems. Curzon Press. p. 170.
ISBN978-1-136-11866-1.